Chasing the aurora

Chasing The Aurora

December 2013

Chasing The

Aurora

Diary of an Arctic Voyage With Astronomy Ireland.

December 2013

Itinerary Dec.1st Flew from Dublin Airport via Oslo, to Tromso. Checked in to our hotel.

Dec. 2nd Spent the day sightseeing in Tromso. Boarded MS Nordlys for a 3-day cruise Dec. 3rd/4th Spent two nights sheltering from storm in Alta. No Excursion to North Cape .cance Dec 5th Arrived back in Tromso in time for Midnight Concert in the Artic Cathedral.

Day 1 of our Arctic Adventure Our Adventure started as planned, meeting at Dublin airport on Sunday, December 1st, in time for our 13.25 departure for Oslo. Our flight was on time and we made our connection for Tromso without incident, apart from the inconvenience of having to retrieve our checked-in baggage in order to go through customs in Oslo. We arrived in Tromso, the most northern University City in Europe, at 20.30 and after a slight wait to retrieve our baggage, we were taken by coach to our hotel, the Rica Ishavshotel, where an excellent dinner was served to us, in spite of the lateness of the hour. Some of the more adventurous members of our party went out after dinner to check out the city nightlife. I took the more prudent choice and went to bed.

The hotel was comfortable and I slept well.

This picture was taken from just outside our hotel.

It shows the view looking across the fjord towards the Arctic Cathedral on the far side. The lights on the bridge can be seen to the left of the picture. Tromso is well within the Arctic Circle, so the sun does not rise at all in December.

Page 1 at this tinme of year

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Day 2: Sightseeing in Tromso With the help of a map and a list of the main attractions, we were free to do our own sightseeing in Tromso on Monday, December, 1st After an ample buffet breakfast in our hotel, I checked out of my room, left my baggage for safe-keeping at the hotel and set out to explore what I could of Tromso in the limited time available. The first picture above was taken close to our hotel.

(The hotel itself was enveloped in scaffolding, as renovations were in progress, so I did not take a picture of it.)

Unfortunately, my little camera does not do time exposures, so all of my pictures are rather dark, due to the limited daylight at this latitude in Winter.

I explored the streets near the hotel and soon found a bus going towards the Arctic Cathedral, so I decided to take it, rather than walk all the way across the bridge. The Cathedral itself was closed, but I examined the exterior. From in front of the cathedral, which is on a height, I had a good view of the city. The middle picture, above, is taken from there. It shows the bridge over the fjord, with the city in the background. I spent some time taking pictures there, before returning by bus to resume my walking tour.

Back in the city proper, I went to the tourist office to seek information and then decided to visit Polaria, a rather unusual museum, which includes an aquarium. I was lucky to catch the seals at feeding time, when they did some clever tricks. I also saw two marvelous films. The first one was a spectacular portrayal of the Northern Lights and the other showed the wildlife and scenery of the island of Svalbard. I explored some more of the city streets and admired the modern architecture.

The picture on the right, above, shows the public library.

On Board the MS Nordlys Our cruise ship, the MS Nordlys, which was to be our home for the next three days, was due to depart at 18.30, so I made sure to board in good time. I found the cabin very comfortable, with a surprising amount of headroom. We were served dinner shortly after setting out on our voyage. The main course offered a fish I had never tasted before. It was Arctic char and was really delicious, with delicate pink flesh, rather like trout, only more delectable. After dinner, we walked about on deck, explored the various lounges, bars and other facilities and had an opportunity to make the acquaintance of our fellow passengers. The sky was overcast, so the aurora was not visible. However, there was plenty to see, as the ship called at two or three ports during the course of the evening, to deliver essential supplies before the ports closed for the winter. Eventually, I repaired to my cabin and slept soundly. The ship was very stable and the night was calm.

The Picture above shows our cruise ship, the MS Nordlys, in port.

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Day 3 : All at Sea! This was the day, December 3rd, when we were due to dock at Honingsvag and then take an excursion overland, by bus, to the North Cape, the most northerly point in Europe. It was a trip I was really looking forward to, but unfortunately, as it turned out, the weather dictated otherwise!

Day 3 of our voyage began as planned. We making our way through sheltered had a sumptuous buffet breakfast and then waters, between the Mainland of repaired to our conference room for the first Norway and a chain of offshore of David Moore’s astronomy lectures. He islands. But now we were crossing gave a 2-hour presentation on The Solar open water and our good ship was System, illustrated by a slideshow of the sun being buffeted by the polar winds. and the planets. There was also a brief During the afternoon, I left my cabin to reference to comet Ison, which we had hoped go to our conference room, where Leo to be able to see during our expedition, but Enright was scheduled to give his first unfortunately, it had disintegrated following lecture on space travel. However, only its close encounter with the sun. a handful of people had turned up and Leo himself was looking a bit under Apart from David, who runs Astronomy the weather. It was impossible to walk Ireland, we were accompanied on the trip by about without staggering and most Guy, our tour guide and by Leo Enright, the people were feeling rather queasy, so well-known space journalist and broadcaster. the lecture was cancelled.

During the course of the morning, Guy gave us the disappointing news that we would be We were told that the weather forecast unable to visit the North Cape as planned, was bad and that it had been decided because the roads were blocked. It was later not to continue on our voyage to announced that we would not even be Kirkenes, close to the Russian border. allowed to leave the ship when it docked at Instead, there was a change of plan Honningsvag. The ship would stop for only and we would shelter for two nights in half an hour in port, to unload essential the port of Alta. This was not on our supplies. original itinerary, but is located in a very deep fjord and is a well-sheltered Lunch was a self-service buffet. I chose port. By the time we arrived there, it reindeer stew, which was delicious. The meat was snowing heavily. was very tender, thinly sliced and served in a creamy sauce. However, during the afternoon, the sea became rather choppy, so I found it prudent to lie down in my cabin for a while. Up to this point, we had been

Having been cooped up in the ship all day, some of us were suffering from cabin fever and decided to go ashore before dinner to work up an appetite, in spite of the stow storm! We were quite hungry after that.

Having a walk in the snow, to work up an appetite for Dinner Dinner was excellent and featured baked cod for the main course. The snow continued to fall, so once more, we were denied a chance of seeing the aurora.

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Day 4: Excursion to Alta and its hinterland.

‘Southern Light’ There was neither sunrise nor sunset, just this pink glow.

The sun remains below the horizon all the time, but there are a few hours of twilight in the middle of the day in these northern latitudes.

We were close to the 70 degree parallel.

(Ireland is in the 50s)

Overlooking the Fjord from a height above Alta On the evening of Day 4 of our trip, following our shore excursion to Alta, we were in the dining room, about to be served dinner, when it was announced that the Northern Lights had appeared, so we abandoned out tables and went on deck!

By the morning of December 4th, it had stopped snowing. Our ship had to spend the day in port, but we got a chance to go ashore. This was an unscheduled stop, but buses had been organized to take us on excursions. Some members of our party had opted to go dog sledding, but I decided to take the bus tour. I felt it would be more comfortable and that we would get to see more of the town and its surroundings. This indeed proved to be the case, though everyone who went dog sledding said they really enjoyed it. However, the dogs went quite fast and the track was through a forest, so they couldn’t have seen very much of the countryside.

It is a really picturesque place, sheltered by snow-covered mountains, with fishing villages dotted all along the banks of the fjord. It would be nice to see it in proper daylight, but we got only about three hours of twilight, between about 9.30 am and 12.30 pm. Local ‘high noon’ occurs at about 11.00 am, as Alta is well east of Oslo, while all of Norway is in the same time zone.

Our bus brought us to visit a local cultural museum, where we learned about the customs of the indigenous people, the Sami. We saw exhibits of stone-age artifacts, such as flint arrowheads, which had been found in the vicinity. I was surprised to discover that people had lived here for thousands of years.

Following our tour of the countryside and the museum, we were brought to the centre of Alta, which we could visit on foot. All the buildings looked very modern. There were some big hotels and plenty of shops. But by far the most impressive building was the Northern Lights Cathedral, designed in a spiral form, inspired by the aurora displays. Some of us spent quite a while visiting it.

When we had seen all we wanted of Alta, there were shuttle buses waiting to bring us back to our ship.

We had missed lunch, so we were really hungry by dinner time, but, as luck would have it, the skies cleared and the aurora became visible before we had a chance to eat!

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These beautiful pictures of the Aurora Borealis were taken by Paul Halton Our first sight of the Northern Lights was an awe-inspiring experience. We could only gaze in wonder as this broad arc of greenish light drifted across the sky, slowly changing shape. We could see the planet Jupiter shining brightly, also Castor and Pollux, the twin bright stars of the constellation Gemini nearby.

Even though we never reached the North Cape

This made it all worthwhile

Day 5: Homeward Bound via Hammerfest.

Having spent a second night in the port of Alta, we resumed our voyage on Thursday, December 5th. To exit the fjord, we first headed north to Hammerfest, the most northerly town in the world.

HAMMERFEST.

The ARCTIC CATHEDRAL, TROMSO.

In Hammerfest, we had time to disembark for about an hour’s shopping. Then we were underway once more, eventually arriving at Tromso in time for the midnight concert in the Arctic Cathedral. We were treated to a lovely programme of works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Grieg, as well as some Nordic folk music, beautifully performed by a soprano, accompanied by organ or piano and cello. It was a wonderful way to end a memorable journey.

After the concert, buses were waiting to bring us back to our hotel, where we snatched a few hours of sleep, before going to the airport for our early morning flight home. Thank you, Astronomy Ireland & Project Travel!